My paintings and works on paper are commentaries about our current global and enviormental ongoing situations. Through my drawings, I have developed these characters that I feel reflect all of our concerns, our fears, our worries and our brutality towards one another.

I see the world as a dangerous place. However, I am seasoned enough to see the absurdity of it all. My cartoon characters represent both the comedy and tragedy of humanity. In their childlike iconography, they embody a sense of innocent playfulness, yet in their monstrous rendering a dark humor is reflected. This dichotomy creates an interesting tension. In my paintings I invite the viewer in with nice colors and pretty surfaces. But if you look closer, the bite is there.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

the bloody red sun of fantastic LA, 2003, cut paper and acrylic polymers on plexi mounted to acrylic on panel, 60x60, imagine a friday afternoon, the 13th of june, 2003, cut paper and acrylic polymers on plexi mounted to acrylic on panel, 60x60, the blood and sins of this generation, 2003, cut paper and acrylic polymers on plexi mounted to acrylic on panel, 72x72

this work is amazing...where has this artist been all my life!...see more here.

i didn't teach a private workshop in february because i was invited for a second visit to teach a workshop at east carolina university by fibers department head christine zoller, fibers faculty robin haller and the student textile guild. my first visit to ecu was in 2008 when i taught a mixed-media encaustic workshop there and this year i was asked to teach a mark-making workshop and give a lecture about my personal work. i was delighted to have been invited back because my first visit was one of the best workshop experiences ever, as i found both the faculty and students at ecu to be an extremely supportive, enthusiastic and friendly group. the workshop this year was made up of a nice mix of mostly fiber majors, some painting students, grads and undergrads. i packed a lot into the two workshop days and the students just ate it up.the first day we did some alternative mark-making on paper and fabric using rust printing, composting and branding. we also looked at indirect markmaking techniques such as graphite transfer and image transfer and used these marks as a starting point for new drawings. we also looked at other response drawing techniques such as exquisite corpse and the group had a great time making one of their own.the second day we looked at soy wax discharge, hand stitching as a mark, instant indigo and hot glue marks with some fun group drawing exercises thrown in.it was an awesome two days and i met some amazing people that will remain lifelong friends. i can't wait to return!to read more about the workshop, please visit workshop participant and fiber graduate student leslie pearson's blog here, here and here and her wonderful map-like drawings from the workshop here.to see more work from the fibers undergrads and grads at ecu go here and here.for information about workshops, please visit my web site under the information menu here.

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